Avon and Somerset Police officers paid a staggering £7.4 million in overtime last year

Figures obtained by the County Gazette show thousands of frontline and back-office staff are racking up millions of pounds of overtime pay and thousands of hours in lieu time.

A spokesman for the force said one of the main reasons the overtime figures were so high were was due to staff shortages, and the inability to recruit new officers.

The figures show between January 1 until December 31 last year, 2,134 police officers and 1,299 civilian staff members accrued overtime and in monetary terms, this amounted to a total of £7,444,905.20 paid out by the force.

In total, £5,619,645 was paid to police officers, with a further £1,807,038 paid to civilian staff, and £18,223 to PCSOs.

More than £2m of this was accrued for major events or operations, such as a murder investigations or a big event, like the Glastonbury Festival.

On top of this, officers also claimed 279,701 hours of lieu time which, if calculated at the National Living Wage of £7.20 per hour, adds a further £2,013,847, or the equivalent of 37,293 working days, owed to staff.

Avon and Somerset Police has a staffing budget of £275m for both frontline officers and back-office staff, and the amount of overtime equates to around 2.5 per cent of the overall budget.

The County Gazette can also reveal that one officer, who was employed on a zero-hours contract as part of a major investigation, was paid £23,136.47 in overtime. The lowest amount paid to one employee was £5.95.

Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner Sue Mountstevens defended the figures, but said she would review them to see if the force could make any savings.

She said: “Given the very nature of policing there will always be a need for overtime. The spending on overtime is equivalent to around 2.5 per cent of the overall £275m budget and is similar to previous years.

She added: “As with all areas of the police budget I will continue to scrutinise spending and look to the constabulary to fill current police officer and staff vacancies more swiftly in order to reduce the overtime bill further.”

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police said: “The use of overtime is an important aspect of being able to flexibly provide an emergency service 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year.

“Overtime will always be necessary, but we recognise that the level of overtime incurred over the last 12 months has been higher than we would want it to be – both from a cost as well as from a staff welfare perspective.

“There are a number of drivers behind overtime, including the number of bank holidays, the demand that we are facing and the resources we have to meet that demand.

“We have experienced vacancies at a level greater than we would otherwise like to have experienced."

The spokesman added: “The critical piece of work here is to introduce new recruits which enables us to fill some of the vacancies that we have.

“We recognise that, as with any public sector organisation, there are workload pressures which are manifesting themselves in part through our spend on overtime.

“The Comprehensive Spending Review offers greater protection to policing and while this does not completely remove our challenges and the need for further savings to be found, it this does provide a greater level of certainty on which we can base our future recruitment activity which will address a lot of the issues we have experienced with the level of overtime.”

John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said he was concerned by the figures.

He said: “These numbers will certainly raise questions. Paying officers to work overtime must be a measure of the last resort, not only because these payments cost taxpayers a fortune but also because it is absolutely crucial that the authorities plan ahead to make sure the right resources are in place in order to maintain public peace and security.

“Authorities simply cannot afford to depend on emergency measures to deliver that and must do better.”